After 10 years of development in the mind of Rui Motty, the project to create an association focused on sustainability – bringing together industry, retail, associations linked to optics, universities, the rest of society and ÓpticaPro magazine – finally emerged with the signing of the AASO deed on September 28th at Círculo Eça de Queiroz, Lisbon.
“It is important that we carry out good practice and share what we can”. It is with this inspiring sentence that Rui Motty, President of the Association for the Support of Optical Sustainability, defines the basis of this initiative that aims to stir consciences in the Portuguese Optical Market.
“It came from will and a dream that I have had for 10 years. Publicly presented at a congress of the National Association of Opticians, in essence, it boiled down to a project of collecting glasses, restoring them and reintroducing them to the market. At that time, sustainability was not on society’s agenda, as it is today. We intend to adapt and adopt good practices in our shops, and eventually extend these practices on a national scale, promoting the preservation of the environment, making it routine for companies”, added Optocentro’s CEO, also present at the signing of the deed in Lisbon. Other figureheads from all departments of the national optics market were also present, among these were three other mentors of this project: Gonçalo Barral, Gonçalo Anastácio and Pedro Rebelo de Sousa.
It is important to highlight two events that were the turning point in this area: the declaration of the 17 UN Sustainable Objectives and the Paris Agreement, in which 195 nations ratified a memorandum with three main objectives: Not letting the temperature rise more than two degrees centigrade above the pre-industrial temperature; Adapting our lives to climate change, and; that the capital market be managed in this direction of environmental factors.
Read the full story at ÓpticaPro 233.
